Film Credits

Writted by: Carol Rosenstein

Directed by: Bruce Gower

Starring: Mike the Dog

Review

For those of you unfamiliar with the Kidsongs series, it's an award-winning live-action musical home video program for children. Each program features the eternally-happy Kidsong Kids singing and dancing to popular children's tunes, all of which revolve around a related theme. Warner Reprise has released two Kidsongs volumes, each of which contains two separate programs and an accompanying song lyric sheet. We reviewed one volume, Kidsongs: A Day at Old MacDonald's Farm / Home on the Range, back in issue #23. Parents and kids should find Kidsongs: A Day With the Animals / Let's Play Ball more enjoyable than Warner Reprise's previous Kidsongs release, as the themes presented are ones that children will readily recognize and associate with, and the live-action sequences are nowhere near as ludicrous. Oh, and fans of canine stars should be pleased to know that the ever-so-talented Mike the Dog (of Down and Out in Beverly Hills fame) appears in both segments.

Any child who doesn't enjoy A Day With the Animals is definitely a lost cause. This program starts out with the Kidsongs Kids visiting the Los Angeles Zoo, saying hi and singing to the animals, and finally winding up in a pet store, and your kids will get a kick out of the myriad animal lifeforms. Songs include "Bingo," "Do Your Ears Hang Low?," "Little Bo Peep," "Why Don't You Write Me?," "Rockin' Robin," "Water World," "The Wanderer," "Harmony," "How Much Is That Doggie In the Window?," "Little Duckie Duddle," "Hickory Dickory Dock" and "Itsy Bitsy Spider."

The title of the second segment, Let's Play Ball, is somewhat of a misnomer as the piece deals with various children's sporting events, not "ball"-related activities. This time around, the kids try out soccer, gymnastics, race car driving, basketball, sailing and other sports to the tune of "It's Not If You Win Or Lose," "Practice Makes Perfect," "Bend Me, Shape Me," "I Get Around," "Over the River," "Footloose," "Rah, Ra, Sis, Boom, Bah," "Catch A Wave," "Centerfield" and "You Know That You Can Do It."

Both of these Kidsongs segments were originally shot on videotape. What this means is that while the image is fairly bright and colorful, it does feature the slightly soft and fuzzy picture quality that goes hand-in-hand with videotaped productions. However, the picture on A Day With the Animals has a "gauzy" look to it, and we're unsure as to whether this was due to an intentional conceptual idea, an unintentional side effect of videotaping in bright sunlight, or just an aged master tape. However, both programs do look extremely good overall for what they are. The CX-encoded digital surround stereo is fine. The disc was pressed at Nippon Columbia (Japan), is Table of Contents encoded, and has a total of 24 chapter markers (listed on the jacket). Following Let's Play Ball on side two at 23m28s is a "commercial" hype of all of the Kidsongs videotape titles.

Song Recap

• Bingo
• Do Your Ears Hang Low?
• Little Bo Peep
• Why Don't You Write Me?
• Rockin' Robin
• Water World
• The Wanderer
• Harmony
• How Much is That Doggie in the Window?
• Little Duckie Duddle
• Hickory Dickory Dock
• Itsy Bitsy Spider
• It's Not if You Win or Lose
• Practice Makes Perfect
• Bend Me, Shape Me
• I Get Around
• Over the River
• Footloose
• Rah, Ra, Sis, Boom, Bah
• Catch a Wave
• Centerfield
• You Know That You Can Do It